Three straight Women’s Super League defeats are over. Spurs Women won 4-1 at Birmingham City on Sunday, and every one of the four goals was a finish worth watching again.
It was also a landmark afternoon for the captain. Drew Spence started at St Andrew’s and in doing so made her 217th WSL appearance, the most by any player in the competition’s history.
The numbers tell you how one-sided it became. Spurs had 28 shots against a Birmingham City side who had not lost at home this season, hit the woodwork three times and still needed a big second half to put the game away.
How did Spurs Women beat Birmingham?
Julie Blakstad broke the deadlock on 37 minutes, and even that goal came off the crossbar. Signe Gaupset tried a cheeky lob that hit the bar, Cathinka Tandberg kept her head in a crowded box to roll it back, and Blakstad rifled into the roof of the net for her first goal of the season.
Before that, Matilda Vinberg had already rattled the underside of the bar from 12 yards after Neve Herron hooked a Gaupset effort off the line. At the other end, Lize Kop tipped a drive onto the crossbar and Oceane Hurtre was a constant threat for the hosts.
The game turned in a three-minute spell after the break. Olivia Holdt was tripped by Lisa Naalsund on the edge of the box, picked herself up and curled the free-kick into the top corner for 2-0 on 50 minutes. Three minutes later Gaupset drove forward, found Holdt, and when Victoria Pelova slipped the ball back into her path she drilled it into the far corner from 16 yards.
Herron turned in a Hurtre corner at the near post on 64 minutes to give Birmingham hope, but Pelova settled it with six minutes left, turning her marker one way and then the other before firing low into the corner. That was her sixth goal of the campaign.
Martin Ho: “We should’ve gone in with a very clear lead”
The head coach was pleased with the second half but honest about the first. Speaking to SPURSPLAY after the game, Martin Ho said: “I thought we started well with good intent and ideas in terms of how we wanted to approach the game, and I thought we should’ve gone in at half-time with a very clear lead with the chances we created.”
He also wanted more care on the break: “We gave them some opportunities on the break which we were naïve with at times. We’ve got to be better in those moments.”
What pleased him most was how his side saw out a spell of Birmingham pressure around the 70 to 75-minute mark, along with a period when they were down to 10 players for six or seven minutes. Ho said: “To manage and control that situation was really good and that shows the mentality of the group is growing.”
Injury worries in midfield
The win came with a cost. Eveliina Summanen, dropped to the bench after the Arsenal game, came on at the hour and was forced off injured nine minutes later. Alice Sombath was already missing with an ACL injury, so Amanda Nilden and Holdt came into the side in the only two changes. Kop also took a heavy knock coming for a cross but was able to carry on.
Drew Spence finally passes Millie Bright
Spence moved level with retired former Chelsea defender Millie Bright in the north London derby the weekend before, and Birmingham took her clear on her own. Her 217 WSL games span her years at Chelsea and her time in N17 since her move from Chelsea to Tottenham in 2022.
She very nearly marked it with a goal too. In the final minute she cut in from the left and broke through, only to fire over.
Verdict: a result Spurs Women badly needed
Three league defeats in a row had put real pressure on Ho’s side going to a ground where Birmingham had not lost all season. This was the right kind of response: 28 shots, four very good goals and a lead that was protected when Birmingham pushed.
It was a good weekend all round in N17, with the men also beating Crystal Palace 2-0, a game in which Archie Gray scored and talked up the squad’s togetherness. For Ho, the job now is turning first-half dominance into goals earlier, and hoping Summanen’s knock is not another long absence in a midfield already without Sombath.
